The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-03-04
AFTER TWENTY YEARS.
CONTRAST BETWEEN NEW YORK
IN THE sos AND THE ,7o'S.
Prentice NTuiford Tells OF His Surprises
in the Metropolis After q Score OF
Years in the Gold Fields of California.
Things Better and Things Worse.
Especial Correspondence. !,

NEW YoRK, Jan. 24-In 1856 left New
York city as d foremast hand, and very
poor one at that, in first class clipper bound
via Cape Horn for San Francisco / did not
see New York again until 1871 and had heard
nothing whatever of the changes occurring
during my ahsancs When I did retnrfi i
looked for the New York Of 1856, and could
not find it. put up at hotel near the city
hall When night cane l was surprised to
find sort of graveyard quietness beginning
all about. In 1856 all the theatres were in
that part of the city. Wallacks old theatre
tthe Starr was there, then the farthest
uptown, Union square was then the
limit OF Broadway promenade. All the
principal retail stores were below the square
Stewards down town store they called it
"Stewart's palace" them was the fashionable
shopping center. Burton's theatre on Cham
bers street, the Broadway, the National and
Barnum's museum were all within five min
utes walk of each other. That section was
then the nucleus Of New York as its nucleus
of theatres, fashionable hotels and the most
approved places for paying high prices for
things is ncw between Union square and
Forty second street.
was two days in New York before found
where the hub of the town had gone / was
as the stranger III a strange land. The cur
rency was new. Oyster stews had gone up
from Shilling to twenty cents Shillings
and "sixpences" had disappeared altogether.
Drinks had been raised from three and six to
ten and fifteen cents. But the quality of the liq-
uor had not always been raised with the price.
Worse than all did the bobtail car bother me.
had never seen such a thing before. did
not know where to put my money or how to
make change with the driver, and in my ig-
norance stuffed a ten-cent shinplaster in the
cars contribution box, thinking, or rather
hoping, that in some mysterious way the con-
Germ might make change for mo on its own
hook. After had SO put it in before sundry
amused passengers | knew l had made
blunder, and left the car long ere reached
my destination to avoid their silent ridiculc.
l had not then the moral courage to face my
own ignorance.
In "'jG" the oyster saloon gave you cur
tanned stall all to yourself, instead of massing
its tables all in one room, thereby subjecting
you to the chance of a disagreeable neighbor
with your fry.
The manager system of feeding had not
then come into fashion. The oysters of that
era were better because they were not then
SO long subjected to the artificial torrid heat
day in and day out of the present saloon,
which ruins certain freshness that cannot
even be maintained On ice. The oyster sa-
loon of that time hung out as sign red
balloon, into which candle was thrust at
night
Photographs were then called sdaguerreo-
types Houses over six stories high were
unknown. There was still good snipe shoot
ing on the Hoboken marshes. Divorced
A
had been to Palestine wasstill somebody. Hip
pistol pockets and derringers were unknown.
Cheap and ready means for killing Qike our
dollar six-shooter Of cast iron with full set of
cartridges were not procurable. Reporters
were neither as bold or dangerous as at pres
ent Interviewing as a science had not been
developed The "supe" at the theatre was
regularly howled at from the gallery OH MAX
ing his appearance. The audience were then
allowed to hiss play if it thought it bad
one. There was then more coarseness allowed
on the respectable stage than now. There was
more tippling and tobacco chewing among
respectable people. The acuspidorn had not
been heard of, but the spittoon was very COM
mon. have seen them as part of the fur.
nishing of a church pew. The average sermon
OF that time was palmer and hotter than at
tural texts were much less used He'll then
was hell and heaven was heaven, and if a
man or woman went to one place he burned
forever, and IL to the other he did not. The
congregation did more of the singing them
selves than now.
The city hall and French's hotel are now
to me the only remaining features of the sec
tion surrounding City Hall square. On ar.
rival Of the California steamers French's
hotel would swarm with bearded men fresh
from the mines, and ready for the fray with
the pains and pleasures of the town. The
cash girl" had not appeared, and large dry
goods stores were not juvenile dry nurseries.
Even the "dickey" had not quite gone out
of fashion in 1856. It was a subterfuge
bosom, tied with strings to the masculine
breast over plain, unstarched shirt front Tor
an unclean starched one). Cases were known
in those days where no shirt was worn at all
But such were extreme cases, if not hard
ones. Boots then had legs, or tops. Any
thing foot wearable without top was called
a shoe. PRENTICE MULFoRD.